GET A MOVE ON

This March hol­i­days, get Ju­nior up and about with these one-of-a-kind phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties for kids. BY CH­ERYL LEONG

WONDERKIDZ BY DANZ PEOPLE #02-18 Pomo, tel: 6884-9072. Open Mon to Fri, 11.30am9.30pm; Sat, 11.30am-6.30pm; Sun, noon to 6pm. www.danzpeo­ple.com FOR KIDS... Aged six to nine WHAT Think glee club – where kids prac­tise group song-and-dance rou­tines to pop hits by the likes of Demi Lo­vato and One Di­rec­tion. This one-and-a-half-hour class has two in­struc­tors tak­ing turns to con­duct vo­cal train­ing and dance chore­og­ra­phy – sim­ple jazz and hiphop moves – each week.

Kids learn how to sing scales, cor­rect their pitch and har­monise with their group; some will be given so­los. By the last few classes, they’ll have com­pleted the rou­tines for two songs. It’s a great way to help your kids gain con­fi­dence to speak up, and learn to work well with oth­ers. HOW MUCH $350 for a 10-week term CHEER KIDS BY JWT KIDS GYM SIN­GA­PORE #02-12 UE Square, tel: 6333-8511. Open daily, 9am6pm. www.jwtkidssin­ga­pore.com FOR KIDS... Aged six to eight WHAT There’s more to cheer­lead­ing than wav­ing pom-poms. From un­der­stand­ing how to place their weight cor­rectly in a pyramid for­ma­tion to cre­at­ing their own cheers, it’s fun all around for young chil­dren – the in­struc­tors will also coach them in sim­ple chore­og­ra­phy.

Aside from im­prov­ing fine-mo­tor skills like bal­ance and co­or­di­na­tion, cheer­lead­ing also helps build trust and team­work.

The work­shop – which lasts two to three half-days, depend­ing on de­mand – is held dur­ing the school hol­i­days in March, June, Septem­ber and De­cem­ber. HOW MUCH $55 for ev­ery two hours KIDS PARK­OUR TRAIN­ING BY A2 MOVE­MENTS Classes are held at 80 Stam­ford Road (Sin­ga­pore Man­age­ment Univer­sity SIS Big Steps), tel: 9184-9744. Sun, 5-6.30pm. www.a2­move­ments.com FOR KIDS... Aged five to 13 WHAT A cool but lit­tle-ex­plored ac­tiv­ity for kids, park­our is about nav­i­gat­ing your sur­round­ings with your body – by rolling, jump­ing, land­ing, climb­ing, run­ning, vault­ing and bal­anc­ing. Kids learn how to con­trol their move­ments and be more ag­ile in these weekly classes. To en­sure that they don’t hurt them­selves, in­struc­tors first teach proper tech­niques to break a fall and land cor­rectly.

Don’t worry as there are no stunts in­volv­ing leap­ing over tall ob­sta­cles. Kids start with very low heights, un­der strict su­per­vi­sion from the in­struc­tor, and progress only when they’re phys­i­cally con­di­tioned enough. Par­ents are free to sit by the side and watch. HOW MUCH $25 for a drop-in ses­sion; $200 for a 10-class mem­ber­ship (valid for three months)

CHIL­DREN’S PRO­GRAMME (LIT­TLE SA­MU­RAI) BY EVOLVE MMA #03-11 Pomo, tel: 6337-0082. Open Mon to Fri, 6.30am-10.30pm; Sat & Sun, 9am-7pm. www.evolve-mma.com FOR KIDS... From four to 15 years old. WHAT A mar­tial arts class for three age groups: four to seven, eight to 10, and 11-15 years. The in­struc­tors make the class fun for the youngest group by us­ing an­i­mal moves like the crab-walk and frog jumps, while teach­ing them the ba­sics – when teach­ing Brazil­ian Ji­u­jitsu tech­niques like grap­pling, for ex­am­ple, kids lie on top of each other and try to hold down the “crocodile”.

For the four-to-seven age group, it’s about en­cour­ag­ing them to come out of their shell and par­tic­i­pate in the class, but kids eight to 10, who can un­der­stand the tech­niques bet­ter, will be taught more chal­leng­ing moves.

There are strict safety rules – no kick­ing, punch­ing or throw­ing. The kids are taught, right from the first class, how to fall with­out in­jur­ing them­selves. Drills are prac­tised on safety mats and par­ents are wel­come to sit in and watch. There is no spar­ring, but kids will pair up to prac­tise the drills they’ve learnt. HOW MUCH $249 a month for un­lim­ited ac­cess to any Evolve-MMA kids’ classes